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The quantity of leaflets you get delivered depends on your marketing budget. Obviously, the more leaflets you get delivered, the more of a response you should receive. The usual way of distribution companies monitoring response is as a percentage. This percentage varies depending on the company you ask and the data they have tracked during distribution runs for their clients.

The response rate you should expect to receive is between 0.1% and 10%. Meaning at worse you should receive 1 call back from 1,000 leaflets. So, for 10,000 leaflets delivered you would receive 10 call backs at worse. And so on.

If you plan the campaign correctly and take into consideration everything mentioned in our articles you should receive a higher response rate. Aiming for around 2% is more realistic and would work out as around 20 call backs per every 1,000 leaflets you get delivered.

If all of these are then converted into paying customers, you should see a large return on your investment.

The distribution team you choose to use should have a list of quantities of households within each postal sector. If you plan to deliver 1,000 leaflets to each sector as you are aiming for council houses only, then you should consider which sectors you wish to aim for. If you were choosing 20 postal sectors then this will give you a quantity of 20,000 leaflets, to print and get distributed. 

Using an experienced distribution team to help plan your leaflet drop campaign, will use your quantity far more effectively. This is recommended as you do not want to be wasting money on leaflets that are left over or delivered to a house that does not apply. 

A lot of distribution companies will have a minimum quantity per postal sector, such as 1,000 leaflets at minimum. Otherwise they would waste money and time sending a team to that area to deliver.

Thinking of how your leaflet should be printed is an important aspect of planning a distribution campaign. What size the flyer will be and what weight are all points to consider.

A5 and A6 flyers tend to be the most common for leaflet distribution as they do not need to be folded to be pushed through a common letterbox. A4 flyers are used regular too as they can give a lot of information and have large impactful images. They may however lose some quality during the process of folding them to push them though a letterbox.

The weight of the flyer should be considered also. This is usually measured in grams per square meter (gsm). A common A4 piece of paper is usually between 90gsm and 110gsm. The usual A5 flyer is around 135gsm, which makes it thicker than a normal piece or paper, giving it a more luxurious feel to what people are used to. If you wanted to increase this to 170gsm then it would be thicker again and feel even better quality. You should increase the gsm depending on the size of the flyer.

If you are using an A6 or A5 flyer, we would recommend between 130gsm and 170gsm. This will give your flyer a good quality feel as well as make it sturdy enough for the deliverers. If increasing your flyer to A4, then you should increase the weight to between 170gsm and 250gsm, anything less would make the flyer curl over as the resident is reading it.

You should have a full colour print if you want to have an impactful campaign and encourage response from residents. Black and white flyers are proven to have less of an impact than full colour leaflets.

The finish you use on your flyer should be considered, when processing the print. You have multiple options such as matt finish, gloss finish, high gloss finish, uncoated etc. The choice you make regarding the finish should work along with the design of your flyer. 

A matt finish suits a design with a lot of writing as there is no shine to the flyer when under a light, making it much easier to read.

A gloss finish would be better for flyers with intricate designs and more visuals. This flyer finish is guaranteed to make your products look their best.

A high gloss finish is perfect for flyers that place high emphasis on the visuals. Due to its high shine, however, it can be quite difficult to read text under bright lights. Choose this finish, if you’re going for an out-of-the-box flyer design that doesn’t include long text explanations.

An uncoated finish is perfect for flyers that often get written on. For example, as a salesperson sometimes you might want to write down your contact details so that customers can reach you. It is also good for flyers, which include a printed contest or raffle form.

Taking this into consideration, you should have the perfect material for what you wish to gain from your campaign.

When planning the design of your flyer ready to be distributed to households, you must ensure that it is eye-catching and relevant. You need a resident to see the flyer on their door mat and want to pick it up to read it. Often if it looks immediately like an advert, it will be thrown straight in the bin and not even looked at.

Images on your design need to be colourful and attractive, to gain the attention of the resident. When you walk into a shop on a hot day, you are often met with a fan of cool air. This is to make you relaxed as you walk through the store, meaning you are more likely to pick stuff up and buy them, even sometimes when you do not need them. This psychology should be applied to the design of your leaflet in the same way. The image, branding and layout of the leaflet is the first thing a resident will see. This should be attractive and positive, to make them relaxed and happy as they engage with the information.

The title is included in the initial impression of the leaflet and should catch the attention of the reader, from the door mat. The title should be large and clear to read. You could start with a question which causes the reader to want to read further through the information provided.

The flyer should be representing your brand and should scream out your business name just by the colours, fonts, and layout. Your brand colours should be used throughout the leaflet and the same font for writing and information.

You should never use a lot of different size fonts and all writing should be structured in an easy-to-read way. The last thing you want is for the reader to be confused exactly where to look at any one time. Using one size font throughout, besides titles and call-to-action’s, will give the reader direction on where to read through and move to next. Using larger font in the right places will also emphasize the right information that you need to stand out. You can also use different colours and boldness on these phrases and titles.

While maintaining your brand colours, you should consider the psychology behind the colours used throughout your advertisement. Colours will often gain a prescribed response from your reader, and you can use this to give an impression which is needed to be engaged with better. Some colours and the impressions they will give are shown below:

• Red – Excitement, Strength, Love, Energy.
• Orange – Confidence, Success, Bravery, Sociability.
• Yellow – Creativity, Happiness, Warmth, Cheer.
• Green – Nature, Healing, Freshness, Quality.
• Blue – Trust, Peace, Loyalty, Competence.
• Pink – Compassion, Sincerity, Sophistication, Sweet.
• Purple – Royalty, Luxury, Spirituality, Ambition.
• Brown – Dependable, Rugged, Trustworthy, Simple.
• Black – Formality, Dramatic, Sophistication, Security.
• White – Clean, Simplicity, Innocence, Honest.

Using this colour psychology, you can really engage with a potential customers emotions.

There is not much cost involved when choosing between single or double-sided design and print of a flyer, so we would always suggest having a double-sided flyer to distribute. This way, no matter which way the leaflet lands on a doormat, something is visible and not just a white page facing a would-be customer. A blank page facing up will often result in your flyer going into the bin. 

Information on your leaflet should be clear and simple. You want to keep as little writing as possible on your flyer, to not overwhelm the reader. Less is more in these situations, but the information provided must be relevant and give enough of a description to sell a product or service.

You should always have a clear call to action, such as “visit our website” or “call now”. The entire leaflet design is left down if there is not an obvious way for the reader to find out more and get in touch. Your contact details should be easy to find on the leaflet and not in among a lot of writing. Icons of a phone or letter can be easy and clear to understand next to the contact information.

If you have a deal on the flyer, make sure to add an end date to encourage a rapid response from the resident. That way you can monitor more clearly the response you have gained from the leaflet drop.

Basic sales psychology should be used when trying to sell any product or service and this tactic should be included in the design of your leaflet. The colour psychology of the design and the attractiveness of your images are hugely important. The wording of all writing on the leaflet will also play a factor when trying to get a reader to engage.

The reader should start knowing little to nothing about the product you are offering, yet by the time they have finished reading, be convinced they need it. In fact, they should look back on their life and wonder how they ever made it this far without it. We want the flyer to elicit emotions that prompt readers to take the next step and convert into paying customers.

Using the correct wording in your information can provide this response from the resident.

The language you use has the potential to take product descriptions, landing pages and long form letters from interesting or useful, to unforgettable. It’s something all great salespeople know and exploit. They pepper their sentences with certain words that capture attention and elicit an emotional response.

If you do not think you are able to write a compelling paragraph that engages with a resident, then using a copywriter may be a useful option for you. Gaining an impactful piece of information will certainly give you a higher response rate than a quickly thought up sentence.

It is important to target the correct areas when planning your leaflet distribution. Using your audience research and knowing what type of customers are most likely to engage with your leaflet is used extensively here. 

Knowing the average income of a postal sector, for example, can determine where the wealthier areas to target may be.

There is a lot of demographic websites around where you can gather this information. These often come with a large price tag to use and can be very awkward to navigate and find the correct information you are looking for.

Using a company who already has this information is often recommended. A distribution company in your area, may have already got this information at the ready due to using it for a previous client. If not, they would usually have the software necessary to gain the information for your campaign.

At the leaflet network, we complete the maps in areas using the postal sectors. We have often got the information of each postal sector to hand. It is easily gathered if not, using the correct demographic software.

When targeting a postal sector, you can often know which postal sectors are comprised of larger populations of wealthier residents or not. You can know by percentage most aspects of a postal sector’s demographic including age, gender, occupation, religion etc.

When considering location, you may also want to know how many households are there, so that you can arrange the print of the leaflets. This information can be found on our website when clicking into a particular area. 

The types of houses in an area can be considered when planning your distribution also. Using the demographic software, you can often find if there are council houses in particular areas. This can be useful for tradesmen looking to advertise in the area, as people who may not own their house, would not be the ones deciding to use these services.

The type of houses in areas such as terraced houses, detached houses, flats etc. could also be considered when planning. The more terraced houses, the quicker the deliverers can get them out. This should bring down the price of the distribution and lead to more efficiency in your return, depending on what you are selling.

Audience research is essentially any research conducted on a customer base to find out about their attitudes, behaviours, and habits – to understand them. The sample can be made up of any group of interest – whether this is nationally representative, or focused on a particular age, gender, region, ethnicity etc.

The purpose of audience research is to answer a range of business questions, such as to find out what interests them, who influences them, what problems they have, what they think of existing products etc.

Conducting audience research will enable you to get a better understanding of your audience, which in turn will help you connect with your customer and help your company grow. Audience research can help you prioritise how best to meet their needs or decide who to focus on, how to reach them, or what to offer them.

When planning a leaflet distribution campaign, you should know as much as you can about the type of people that are most likely to buy your product or use your services. This way you can target them directly with your flyers to be put through their letterbox.

Demographics of your customers should be considered when conducting the research. If your regular customers are male, then maybe consider where you would find the most male customers. You could also make the design of the leaflet more appealing to male residents. 

Another demographic that is often considered is the wealth of an audience. If you are selling something expensive such as high-end watches, then you would need to target areas that are wealthier and are full of residents with more disposable income. Again, the design of the leaflet should be considered with this as, a more high-end product would need to look more formal and less playful to get the response you want from potential customers.

You can conduct this research using existing data of your previous customers. If it is a particular sale, you are advertising, then you can consider who is most likely to benefit from that deal and who is most likely to engage with the offer you are presenting. People with less disposable income for example may react better to 90% off sale.

There are companies that can conduct this research for you including our office staff. Having this information presented clearly and correctly can improve your marketing campaign dramatically. 

You would then use this, alongside the information you gather on the location you plan to deliver to. You will then get your flyers to the correct audience instead of wasting thousands, trying to find someone who MAY buy your product.

Having a plan behind your leaflet distribution campaign is extremely important. You should not just blanket drop a load of leaflets to a large area and hope for the best results. The design, print and where the leaflets are delivered should all be thought of thoroughly to increase response and get the return on investment you need.

The following list is a step-by-step guide of everything you should consider when planning your distribution campaign:

1. Research your audience – Knowing your audience is something you may already have information about. Knowing what type of people would usually use your services or buy your products is important as these are the people you would wish to target when delivering your leaflets. 
2. Gain information on the location – Finding information on the location you plan to deliver your leaflets is hard without the correct software. Most credible leaflet distribution companies would have software that can gain this information and you may need to liaise with your distribution company to get this information. You may want to know which areas will have the wealthier residents who may have the most disposable income if you are selling something relatively expensive. This information will help with where your leaflets should be delivered and by targeting the correct audience, you should see a higher return on your investment. 
3. Design your leaflet – The plan on designing your leaflet should be taken very seriously, down to the last word. The information you provide on your flyer should be short but to the point. Images used, should be eye catching and encourage engagement. If you are going to use a graphic designer for this, then you should use someone with experience in designing material for distribution as the way it is designed should get a prescribed response. 
4. Print your leaflet – The quality of the printing when regarding leaflets is hugely important. Having a plain paper leaflet will not gain the same response as a high gloss double sided thick flyer. You would want your leaflet to be kept by a resident and one of the best ways is to drive them to feel it is worth something more than to just end up in the bin. 
5. Quantity of leaflets – As your response rate is usually measured as a percentage, choosing the number of leaflets you print and distribute is important. Having a low quantity of leaflets may result in small number of customers using your services. Increasing the number of leaflets, you distribute will result in more customers. You should have a budget in mind when planning your campaign and stick to that. The more you can deliver will lead to better results and bring down the price per thousand with most companies. 
6. Choose your distribution method – Solus distribution or shared distribution is a hard choice when you are selling a product, but you must consider whether the price of the services or products you are offering will cover the cost of the solus campaign. There is not a huge difference in response rates compared to shared, however, catching the attention of your reader is far more likely when your leaflet is the only one on the door mat of the resident. 
7. Timing of your campaign – Choosing a correct timescale is important when planning your leaflet distribution. You can ask your distribution company when the most likely time is to gain a response for your type of business. This is something they may have recorded previously with companies in the past they have worked with, in your industry. You can also ask on online forums with other businesses that have tried it. If you have a date on your leaflet you must plan to get all the leaflets delivered by the date of the event. This should be mentioned to the distribution company so that they do not go past the date. 
8. Ensure other marketing is up to date – Having your social media posts to correspond to the offer on the leaflet at the time of distribution is something to consider. If your leaflet shows one offer but your Facebook page another, this could possibly lose you trust by the potential customer and lose sales. Having an up-to-date website is hugely important if that is where you are driving your potential customers. If your flyer gives your web address and then the resident goes online to read more, but you have underperforming website, this can be at a huge detriment to your response rates. 
9. Choose a reputable distribution company – If you do not choose to use the leaflet network to find a reputable company, then you must consider several things when choosing a company to deliver your flyers. If they are too cheap, then it is probably too good to be true. Check the reviews of the company you are using. Make sure you back check the distribution campaign following completion. 
10. Monitor your response – When designing your leaflet, we would encourage some sort of code that is specific to that campaign, or a phone number that is only used on that leaflet. This way you can see what customers came organically and which ones came from your leaflet drop. Keeping a record of this can give you insight into which areas worked for you and which ones did not. If you choose to retarget areas, you will have better information to work with than just the demographics provided and planned at the beginning. The more precise you can become over time and time and delivering leaflets, will result in better and better results.
11. Repeat areas – In marketing it is important to remember that most people will not buy from the first advert they see of a business, product, or service. You must build trust over multiple times of seeing your branding. To gain the best possible results you should repeat delivery to the exact same houses, maybe changing your design and print slightly each time. It can take up to 3 times in one house before you gain a response from some residents. In our experience you should see an increase in response rates each time. After the third time, give the area a break before you target it again. 

These steps may apply to your business, depending on the type of business you have. As with any marketing campaign, these should be tailored to your specific industry and potential customers. If you are unsure about the planning of the campaign, it will be well worth your time to use someone in the leaflet distribution industry to help. Although you may have to pay for a full planning of the campaign, the results you get back should more than cover the costs of this.

Back in the 1400’s it would have been common practise to go into the streets and cry out at the top of your voice if you had information to share to the locals. This would, however, work out to be rather ineffective and messages passed on in this way would change and twist as it was relayed on among people of the area.

People with an important message soon realised that if they wanted to get it out to people of the area, then they would need to write their message down and pass it on. Handwritten newsletters were handed out to relay important news of the area.

In 1450, Germany invented the printing press, and the handwritten newsletters soon became printed newspapers, and it was obvious to see that this had a far more reaching effect than your typical handwritten note. In the British civil war, printed leaflets were used to pass important information among troops and even spread bad information about the enemy.

The movement to abolish the slave trade, the women’s rights movement, and propaganda for the second world war were all printed and distributed as leaflets!

In 1950, after the war, printing evolved and became much more visual, selling goods to consumers – everything from fridges, to cards, to holidays.

In recent years leaflet distribution is still an extremely effective form of marketing, despite the invention of social media and pay per click advertising. This is because there is no other form of marketing that can advertise direct to the consumer. Online adverts have quickly become something to expect when scrolling through your news feed of Facebook or making a Google search, and you simply pass them, as if they were not even there.

Leaflets have a much more personal touch, including more information about the business. At the very least, an uninterested resident will not want to throw it out as it looks and feels important and will often put it on the side table with other letters where, someone of that household who may use it, comes across the flyer. Therefore, no matter how technology progresses, leaflet distribution, will always remain one of the best ways to advertise.

If your marketing campaign is completed correctly, then digital advertising as well as leaflet distribution can work well together. Having an effective website for a potential customer to go to following receipt of your flyer, can work out to be extremely useful. Therefore, it is important to get all aspects of your marketing campaign thought of when arranging a leaflet drop.